Voice of Salvation: Alternate End
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: Oneshot. Alternate ending. What if when Mrs. Lovett had actually been in danger when she screamed? What if Sweeney never got a good look at the beggar woman's corpse? What if he found out that the "lad" he'd almost killed was really Johanna?


**DISCLAIMER: Sweeney Todd belongs to Stephen Sondheim and is being used here without permission.**

**A/N: Seeing as how he ran to her rescue when she screamed, I figure if there was actual danger, then...**

-- Voice of Salvation: Alternate End --

"Forget my face," he growled at Johanna, and rushed off to save Mrs. Lovett.

When Sweeney Todd entered the bake house, he was met with a sight that chilled his blood. Mrs. Lovett was on the ground beside the body pile, clawing at the judge's fingers which were locked around her throat. The bastard was still alive.

Well, Sweeney would be damned if he'd let that judge take _another_ woman away from him!

"_You are dead, damn it! Release her!_" he shouted.

He lashed out with the razor, slashing and hacking at any part of Turpin's body he could reach, until at last the strangling hands fell away.

He let the razor slip from his hand as he reached out to scoop Mrs. Lovett into his arms. She clung tightly to him, burying her face against his shoulder.

"Are you alright, my pet? I didn't cut you?" Some of his swings had been a bit wild...

He felt her nod and took it to mean that she was alright and hadn't been cut, for she didn't offer any more answer than that. She was still trembling with fear from her close encounter with death.

Toby had heard Mrs. Lovett's scream as well and rushed back throught the twisting sewer passages to see what had happened. Despite her part in Mr. Todd's crimes, Toby still loved her as if she were his real mum and didn't want anything bad to happen to her. He reached the grate that led to the bake house just in time to see Sweeney scoop up the frightened Mrs. Lovett and carry her away. He'd even spoken to her in a tone that could pass for concern.

He'd even left one of his precious razors behind in his haste to take her to safety.

And that's when Toby decided he didn't care if they were murderers or corpse desecrators or _cannibals_. They obviously cared about each other, and about him. They were his family and he wanted to be with them.

Sweeney should have taken her to her room to rest, but his feet carried him to his own shop automatically.

"You still here?" he said sourly to Johanna, who was still in the room.

Johanna didn't know what to think. She'd just seen this man kill two people, then he'd run off and now he was back with a woman in his arms, both of them covered in blood. Then she remembered the scream that had called him away and realized that the woman in his arms must be the one who'd made it. And the woman was still alive... for now, at least.

Suddenly Anthony burst into the room.

"Johanna!" he cried, taking hold of her arm. Then he caught sight of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. "Mr. Todd, what's happened?" Anthony asked in alarm. "We should get her to a doctor straight away!"

"No," Sweeney snapped, unconsciously tightening his grip. "She'll be fine. None of this blood is hers." That should have raised more questions than it answered, but Anthony had been around Sweeney long enough to know better than to expect answers. "You two go on, now." He was sure now, he didn't want his daughter to know the man her father had become. If it had not been for Mrs. Lovett screaming at that crucial moment, he would have surely killed Johanna tonight. It was better to let the girl go off with her young lover and hope they could find together what had been so cruelly taken from him fifteen years ago...

And not a moment after they'd gone, he heard hasty footsteps pounding up the stairs. The door flew open once more, and there stood Toby.

"I don't care... what you're doing... I won't tell... anyone," the boy gasped out breathlessly. "Please, sir, is she okay?"

Mrs. Lovett slipped from Sweeney's arms and swept the boy into a hug.

"I'm alright, love," she said softly. "A little worse for the wear, but I'll live." The delicate skin of her neck was ringed with dark bruises from where she'd been strangled.

As he watched the two of them, Sweeney remembered what Mrs. Lovett had said to him not too long ago: _We could have a life, us two. Maybe not like I dreamed. Maybe not like you remember. But we could get by_.

They were certainly not the family he'd left behind.

But they are the one he's come back to.

-end-


End file.
